Posts Tagged ‘North Head’

Last week, a group of ‘en plein air’ watercolour painters gathered on lovely Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy. We met on Sunday evening and shared a delicious Welcome Dinner at the historic Marathon Inn. The next morning, we met at our studio for a demonstration. I talked about water, which seemed appropriate as we’re on an island and surrounded by the wet stuff. Water has many moods. I tried to offer some ideas to help the students tackle it’s many challenges.

Following the demonstration, we went over to North Head harbour; just a short hop. We all stay in North Head so it’s nice to be close to home on the first day. Several of the students settled into the shady spot in front of Kirk’s shed.

North Head Harbour is very busy with fishing as well as related activities such as rockweed gathering and the care and feeding of farmed Atlantic salmon.

Nearby, Pettes’ Cove attracted a few eyes. It offers a splendid view of the famous Swallowtail lighthouse.

It was a beautiful, sunny day. Little did we know at the time but our entire week would give us brilliant weather. The studio is a welcome retreat at the end of the day and we assembled for our first critique of the week.

Monday Critique a

Monday Critique b

On Tuesday morning, we met at Seal Cove. Seal Cove features the traditional herring smokesheds and abounds with character. I set up my easel and did a demonstration. I talked about developing a watercolour with a ‘light to dark’ and ‘big to small’ process.

The students spread out in search of subjects and shade. It didn’t take long to settle in.

A few painters brought their shade with them.

Others sought it out.

A few soaked up the sunshine even though I don’t recommend painting in the sun. It dries up your paper and palette too quickly and bleaches out your darks so the painting can become overworked. Still, a happy artist is a good thing…

Eventually, it was time to return to the studio for our critique. As the week goes by, you may notice different styles in our daily exhibitions. I don’t teach ‘my way or the highway’ workshops. As best I can, I encourage each artist to find their personal voice.

Tuesday Critique a

Tuesday Critique b

Tuesday Critique c

You guessed it! More sunshine on Wednesday. While at Seal Cove on Tuesday, I’d done a small watercolour with the intention of adding penwork to it for our Wednesday morning demonstration. I did it at the studio before heading to Fisherman’s Haven Lane, which is home to Ingall’s Head Cottages. Many thanks to Wendy, the proprietor, for allowing us to park on her property.

We got to work right away. This is a lovely and quiet spot, a bit off the beaten track. The locals are always interested in our creative efforts.

Finding shade became an art form of it’s own.

Critique time! Is it already Wednesday? Thanks for following along with our exploits. Stay tuned for my report from Thursday and Friday of last week.

Last Monday morning, the participants in my 2016 sketching and watercolour painting workshop on Grand Manan Island gathered at our studio in North Head. We had all met each other the evening before at the Marathon Inn, where we enjoyed our delicious Welcome Dinner.

I kicked off our week with a discussion/demonstration and my theme was skies and water. It’s a broad subject! I presented a few relevant techniques and emphasized some basic principles and processes. In addition to that, I gave a lesson on drawing basics to the new students. Perspective and the use of a measuring stick were the main topics. The students dispersed to paint and draw in the village of North Head. Over the course of the day, I visited the artists and offered feedback.

At the end of the day, we re-grouped at our studio for our first critique. Our week was off to a great start!

Monday Critique a

Monday Critique b

We met at our studio again on Tuesday morning. I did something a little bit different and showed a selection of watercolours and drawings from the late Saint John artist Jack Humphrey. Here are two of his works from Grand Manan Island courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada. I’ve always enjoyed the simplification and spontaneity of his work.

Village, Grand Manan by Jack Humphrey

Village, Grand Manan by Jack Humphrey

Our venue was Woodward’s Cove. It’s quite a unique spot as the harbour completely drains of water at low tide and fills right up again at high tide. It was another sunny day so many of our painters sought out shade and some had even brought their own.

Here’s the harbour at low tide.

About six hours later, the harbour had filled up again. Shortly after, we returned to our studio to look at the day’s work. Thanks for following and stay tuned. There’s lots more to come from beautiful Grand Manan Island.

Let me tell you about the Birds and the Bees. We’ve got a great group of painters this week on Grand Manan Island. Some are less-experienced than others and that’s the case for most workshops. I decided on our first morning, yesterday, to give some of my demonstrations for all participants and some for the newer painters. The new guys are getting some ‘back to basics’ and that became B2B and that became the Bees. The more experienced painters, who don’t need the basics, head off to paint outdoors right away and they are now the Birds. Some start the day as a Bee and take flight as a Bird later on.

We met at our studio yesterday, Monday morning, and after a talk with the Birds I discussed a few fundamentals with the Bees. We practiced basic soft-edge techniques and I suggested a simplification exercise that would give them experience without becoming too boring.

Over the course of the day, everyone worked outside for at least a few hours. I visited the Birds where they were perched along the shoreline in North Head and offered them some feedback.

We reconvened in the studio at the end of the day and had our first critique. I looked at the Birds and the Bees separately.

Monday Critique – Bees

Monday Critique – Birds

This morning, Tuesday, we met again in the studio. A thunderstorm raged outside for an hour or two and I discussed guidelines about painting water and reflections.

Water can be a tricky subject but there are principles, based on observation, that can help. Our group paints outdoors and we don’t use materials like masking fluid so we try to solve the problems with our paint, brushes and paper.

Both Birds and Bees attended the demo and, when it wrapped up, we headed to Woodward’s Cove to paint. Woodward’s Cove is one of the island’s largest harbours and we knew there would be lots of water to challenge us.

Well, we ran out of water but not until mid-afternoon. The tides are spectacular in the Bay of Fundy and this harbour drains completely twice every 24 hours. The painters managed to find lots of subjects, including water, and we had a productive day.

Our critique was back at the studio. We looked at the Bees and the Birds separately again but it won’t be long before we start to mix them up.

It was a cool and overcast start to our second day. That might sound unpromising but it gave me the perfect opportunity to do a sustained demonstration in the studio. I painted on two quarter sheets (11 x 15″) of Curry’s 200 lb., cold press watercolour paper. I offered ideas about colour and value. We have several students who have experience with oil and acrylic but are fairly new to watercolour so brush-handling and soft-edge techniques were presented, as well.

There’s a lot of interest in pen and ink drawing in the group. I did this sketch of floats at the Museum on Monday. Hatching and cross-hatching are the techniques I’ve used.

North Head was our ‘en plein air’ painting site, just minutes from our studio. The harbour is a busy place and home to a real variety of fishing boats.

You can even find a windbreak, if needed.

Eventually, the sun came out!

We returned to our studio for the critique at the end of the day. I encourage the students to pursue their interests within the general frame of the workshop. A big part of my job is to help them find their individual voice.

Painting and sketching weren’t the only things on our agenda. We met for a lovely dinner at the well-known Compass Rose Inn. I think this picture is worth a thousand words. Yum!

It was a cool and foggy morning and we started the day in Seal Cove, amongst the herring smokesheds. My watercolour demonstration was of the ‘shape-reading’ approach; no pencil drawing was done prior to painting. Also, I left a little bit of the dry paper between the shapes in order to prevent everything from running together in the damp conditions.

We warmed up with coffee at the charming McLaughlin’s Wharf Inn (506-662-8760) for a while but the damp mist prevailed and we decided to check out some other sites around the island. As it happened, the weather had improved in the North Head area so we settled in for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day, we gathered behind the Marathon Inn for our critique.

Friday Critique

Our Farewell Dinner took place at the Marathon in the evening and it was lobster with melted butter all around. Not to mention the fresh potato salad and my all-time favourite Caesar salad (apparently the secret has to do with anchovies).

We followed dinner with our Final Critique, a chance to review the week and enjoy the paintings and sketches one more time. David and Joyce Ogilvie, who have been to Lucca and Puglia with us in the past, dropped by with their daughter, Alison. Alison is a long-time workshop regular on Grand Manan and she’ll be joining us in Newfoundland next week. David is a fine photographer and he took our group photo. I’ll send it out as soon as he forwards it to me.

That’s it for the Group of Seven, Grand Manan style. The artists all deserve a thank you for contributing to a rewarding, creative experience. I’m glad you’ve been following us and appreciate your comments. Why don’t you mark July 28 – August 3, 2013 in your calendars and treat yourself to this gem of an island?